Cluster of Excellence “Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage” – Discovering New Materials for an Emission-Free Future

The continued burning of fossil fuels to meet our growing demand for energy has brought the world to the brink of a climate crisis. In this Cluster of Excellence, researchers are working to create new technologies for efficient energy conversion and storage, paving the way to a fossil fuel-free society. One key factor is the storage of renewable energy in recyclable energy carriers: water can be split into hydrogen and oxygen, and CO2 can be converted into higher-value products - even climate-neutral substitutes for natural gas and crude oil. To fulfil this purpose, the researchers aim to develop catalysts on which chemical reactions can take place quickly and reliably. The Cluster will bundle expertise from various fields such as surface chemistry, surface physics, materials science, and computer simulation. The work of this Cluster of Excellence is an important step towards climate neutrality.

As part of the Cluster of Excellence, the group of Jani Kotakoski will combine surface science techniques and in-situ atomic-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy to create and study defect-engineered 2D materials and 2D material-supported single atoms, clusters and nanoparticles, and their catalytic properties.

FWF funding volume: €20.6 million

Participating member of PNM: Jani Kotakoski

Project publications

Showing entries 1 - 10 out of 10

2026

Wang, C., Sombut, P., Puntscher, L., Barama, N., Hao, M., Kraushofer, F., Pavelec, J., Meier, M., Libisch, F., Schmid, M., Diebold, U., Franchini, C., & Parkinson, G. S. (2026). Hydrogen Activation via Dihydride Formation on a Rh1/Fe3O4(001) Single-Atom Catalyst. Angewandte Chemie - International Edition, Article e25745. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.14756, https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202525745
Liebsch, Y., Leino, A., Madauß, L., Singh, R., Grande, P. L., Tomić Luketić, K., Karlušić, M., Maas, A., Breuer, L., Lebius, H., Grygiel, C., Toimil-Molares, M. E., Trautmann, C., Johnson, A. T. C., Zhao, M., Muinos, H. V., Tripathi, M., Akhmadaliev, S., Kotakoski, J., ... Schleberger, M. (2026). Quantitative Modeling of Nanopore Formation in 2D MoS2 by Swift Heavy-Ion Irradiation. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 18(4), 7237–7248. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.5c20044

2025

Aggarwal, V., Abidi, I. H., Limb, J., Kofler, C., Verma, A. K., Giridhar, S. P., Dissanayake, N. S. L., Vashishtha, P., Tollerud, J. O., Mao, J., Sehrawat, M., Gupta, T., Kannan, B., Panahandeh-Fard, M., Ahmed, T., Lu, Y., Davis, J. A., Russo, S. P., Kotakoski, J., ... Walia, S. (2025). Stacking Mode-Driven Enhancement of Optoelectronic and Electrocatalytic Properties in Bilayer 2H MoS2. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 17(34), 48658-48669. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.5c11713
Vijay, S., Schlipf, M., Miranda, H., Karsai, F., Kaltak, M., Marsman, M., & Kresse, G. (2025). Efficient periodic density functional theory calculations of charged molecules and surfaces using Coulomb kernel truncation. Physical Review B, 112(4), Article 045409. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2501.02435, https://doi.org/10.1103/cd6s-cdkf
Joudi, W., Ghaderzadeh, S., Trentino, A., Mizohata, K., Mustonen, K., Besley, E., Kotakoski, J., & Åhlgren, E. H. (2025). Two-Dimensional One-Atom-Thick Gold Grown on Defect-Engineered Graphene. ACS Nano, 19(24), 22032–22043. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.5c01538
Joudi, W., Windisch, R. S., Trentino, A., Propst, D., Madsen, J., Susi, T., Mangler, C., Mustonen, K., Libisch, F., & Kotakoski, J. (2025). Corrugation-Dominated Mechanical Softening of Defect-Engineered Graphene. Physical Review Letters, 134(16), Article 166102. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.166102
Sombut, P., Meier, M., Eder, M., Angerler, T., Gamba, O., Schmid, M., Diebold, U., Franchini, C., & Parkinson, G. S. (2025). The surface phase diagram of Fe3O4(001) revisited. RSC Applied Interfaces, 2(3), 673-683. Article 673-683. https://doi.org/10.1039/d5lf00022j
Fruehwald, H. M., Liebsch, Y., Javed, U., Lebius, H., Grygiel, C., Rahali, R., Kotakoski, J., Schleberger, M., & Smith, R. D. L. (2025). Basal-Plane Pores Activate Monolayer MoS2 for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction. ACS Catalysis, 15(5), 3768-3776. https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.4c07970

2024

Jinnouchi, R., Karsai, F., & Kresse, G. (2024). Absolute standard hydrogen electrode potential and redox potentials of atoms and molecules: machine learning aided first principles calculations. Chemical Science, 16(5), 2335-2343. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2409.11000, https://doi.org/10.1039/d4sc03378g
Propst, D., Joudi, W., Längle, M., Madsen, J., Kofler, C., Mayer, B. M., Lamprecht, D., Mangler, C., Filipovic, L., Susi, T., & Kotakoski, J. (2024). Automated image acquisition and analysis of graphene and hexagonal boron nitride from pristine to highly defective and amorphous structures. Scientific Reports, 14(1), Article 26939. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-77740-9
Showing entries 1 - 10 out of 10